2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees announced

So what? Diana Ross & The Supremes had a Moog synthesizer on "Reflections" which was earlier that year. Your point is? It's not like the Monkees influenced the Beatles to do the same.

 

Every single other band ever put together by a producer for a project... and every other TV band ever. You may not like it, but there are many many of those, from The Bay City Rollers, to The Naked Brothers Band, The Partridge Family, The Jonas Brothers, Allstar Weekend, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, Spinal Tap, The Rutles ... etc...

Every. Single. One. owes a debt to The Monkees.

There's a reason most of those I listed are forgotten just a few years after they formed, but the Monkees are still talked about 45 years later.

 

Yikes. Yeah, let's keep them out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. BTW, I meant artistically.

We're talking about them because we're on a classic rock message board. It's not like they're brought up in discussion every day by others outside of this board.

 

Who wrote and produced Reflections?

Who performed on it?

 

Members of the group are still playing on those songs. Tork plays the keyboard on the first two songs and Nesmith is playing the distinctive guitar lick on PVS, plus the Monkees are singing on those tunes, just like Sinatra and Presley sang on theirs though they most likely didn't play any instruments on them, and the voice is considered a musical instrument.

And as someone has pointed out earlier, Elvis Presley didn't write the majority of his hits either, but they're still considered Elvis songs.

 

Both Deep Purple and Yes (who both deserve induction) acknowledged the Fudge as an influence. Deep Purple Mark I had 2 chart hits and sowed the seeds of the later, more successful incarnation (who still showed some Fudge influence in the long intro to "Lazy"). Yes (as well as ELP, King Crimson, Kansas, and others) extensively utilized those long symphonic instrumental intros that the Fudge pioneered in 1967.

 

My choices from the inductees...

Nine Inch Nails
N.W.A
Cheap Trick
the Cars
Los Lobos
Yes

 

Just let it go guys. The Monkees will never be inducted. Oh well, life goes on.

 

Nobody in Talking Heads wrote "Take Me To The River." And that was one of their big hits. Pathetic.

 

GW: Let's get back to the beginning of Deep Purple. How did you and Jon meet?

BLACKMORE: I met him in a transvestite bar in '68, in Hamburg, Germany. [laughs] Back in the late Sixties, there were few organists who could play like Jon. We shared the same taste in music. We loved Vanilla Fudge - they were our heroes. They used to play London's Speakeasy and all the hippies used to go there to hang out - Clapton, The Beatles - everybody went there to pose. According to legend, the talk of the town during that period was Jimi Hendrix, but that's not true. It was Vanilla Fudge. They played eight-minute songs, with dynamics. People said, "What the hell's going on here? How come it's not three minutes?" Timmy Bogert, their bassist, was amazing. The whole group was ahear of its time. So, initially we wanted to be a Vanilla Fudge clone. But our singer, Ian, wanted to be Edgar Winter. He'd say, "I want to scream like that, like Edgar Winter." So that's what we were - Vanilla Fudge with Edgar Winter!


http://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/blackmore/rb199102xx.html

 

Just let it go guys. The fact that you don't like The Monkees doesn't matter. Oh well, life goes on.

 

Doesn't matter. Look at the incredible body of work (including their biggest hit "Burning Down the House") that was WRITTEN and PLAYED by the Talking Heads.

 

What of the Supremes' body of work was written and played by them?

 

The Supremes may have had a Moog on 'Reflections', but Micky Dolenz played most of the Moog sounds on the songs that featured it on the 'Pisces' album. I sincerely doubt Diana Ross dirtied her pretty little fingers playing the Moog on the record.

And as had been mentioned earlier, the Monkees were amoung the first groups to use a Moog on a Pop record. Maybe not the first, but one of the first.

 

I've become "Monkees Agnostic" over the years. 10 years ago, I would've argued they don't belong in the Rock Hall, but my position has changed... somewhat. I won't argue they do belong, but I also won't argue they don't. They're one of those acts who I don't think is a clear-cut inductee but I also wouldn't regard their induction as a mistake.

I do find myself in the club that feels it's probably not going to happen. Never say never, of course, but the Monkees will celebrate their 50th anniversary next year and I don't think they've even been nominated.

Sometimes it appears the Rock Hall tries to "fix mistakes" after a musician dies, but apparently Davy's death didn't move that needle.

A Monkees induction could still happen, but it seems less and less likely with each passing year...

 

They should be inducted because they were the first and, arguably, still the "best" of the pre-fab bands. Since them, there have been hundreds, maybe even thousands, mostly forgotten. But, here, 45 years later people are still on this board talking about them. There is a good reason for that. So, their influence isn't so much *the music* as it is *the phenomenon* and the legacy is all the others that attempted to follow the same path, some were successful, some were not. But, there should be some representation of that in the HoF as it is a HUGE part of the industry post-Monkees.

And, the argument that the phenomenon only lasted 2 years makes it that much more impressive that it has lasted and is still being discussed 45 years later, and makes the point for their induction that much stronger.

Seriously.

 

Chicago, Spinners

 

Standard responses to this topic.

1. Who cares?
2. They *insert name here* AREN'T rock!
3. They *insert name here* should have been inducted a decade ago!
4. They should change the name, it's blasphemy!

Repeat annually.

 

Actually, mostly just Byrne and Eno according to Weymouth. (I know, I know, it's like asking Fogerty about CCR)

Just look at the incredible body of work written and played by The Monkees...

The Girl I Knew Somewhere
You Just May Be The One
You Told Me
For Pete's Sake
Randy Scouse Git
Pleasant Valley Sunday
No Time
Shades of Grey
The Door Into Summer
Love Is Only Sleeping
Daily Nightly

Off the top of my head...

Plus, the "powers that be" in Nashville openly acknowledge that Mike Nesmith's infamous Nashville Monkees recording session is the "birth" of country-rock (or more accurately pop-country that led to the modern Nashville sound). Not to mention his involvement in creating MTV. So, at the very least Nesmith should be inducted.

 

Man, there are some poorly informed folks on this board.

 

Pleasant Valley Sunday was written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King.
Shades of Grey was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
No Time was written by Hank Cicalo.
The Door into Summer was written by Chip Douglas and Bill Martin.
Love is Only Sleeping was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

The rest of those songs are filler material. I'm sure they did write and play on a few of them.

 

Chicago (finally) and Deep Purple, hooray!

The remainder... meh

 

Wow. Looking at the RS poll results thus far, the top five (Chicago, Yes, Cars, Deep Purple, and Steve Miller) have just over 15% each, then Janet Jackson at 7.5% percent. All the others are less than 3%

 

I haven't read all of the posts, so I'm not sure what this comment was in response to, but obviously the 5 Royales are not a household name. However, for those who think it's important for current and future generations to understand the development of rock and roll, the 5 Royales (and their great guitarist who freestyles all over "Dedicated to the One I Love") matter, and one of the reasons for the Hall is to make sure that artists like that do not fade away. They deserve to be remembered. That's the purpose of the "early influences" category.

 

my five from the nominees
The Smiths
N.W.A
Yes
Deep Purple
JB's